This blog exists to support liberatory collectivist activism that is anti-patriarchy, anti-colonialism, and anti-capitalism. It also seeks to center the experiences, theories, and agendas of radical and feminist women of color.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Osama bin Laden is dead. Now can the U.S. get out of Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Or will the U.S. use this death as an excuse to stay in corrupt wars even longer?

The U.S. government has been terroristically and criminally at war against Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and has military presence in the Middle East and North Africa. Will the death of bin Laden result in the U.S. withdrawing troops? Or will the U.S. remain the most terroristic, militarised, racist nation-state on Earth?

Please withdraw all troops from Afghanistan and everywhere else, cut the military budget, increase taxes on the rich, make corporations earning billions annually pay taxes, and stop looting the poor and middle class. And please stop looting and polluting the Global South too. And stop the genocide against Indigenous people. And rape. And please work to end all forms of exploitation of girls and women.

George Orwell could not have written something this good. How do we know it was him? And all these years, the US couldn't find him? And the final clue:'they buried the body in the ocean' meaning they dumped the body in the ocean, so no one can verify who it was.

Of course I agree with you on the war. But what about the oil pipeline, the real reason (as I see it) for these invasions?

Apparently the DNA tests are back and conclude the body was that of Osama bin Laden.

But the issues you raise are so important. We might note that if a Afghan and Iraqi leaders decided to take out Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld--all these many years later--and shot 'em in the head and dumped their bodies into the ocean, both countries would be bombed (even more) mercilessly by the U.S. military-government.

It's called "terrorism" in the U.S. media (24/7) only when "other people" do something to "us" (the US). It's called "appropriate measures to ensure national security" by the US over-militarised government when "we" terroristically bomb and mass murder "them"--like in Iraq where bin Laden and the weapons of mass destruction never were, and in Afghanistan when the US knew he was in Pakistan. How convenient to ensure we need a military "at the ready" perpetually, endlessly, for us to behave this way and support this kind of barbaric foreign policy. And, how unconscionable.

Are we not supposed to respond appropriately, with military action only as a last resort, when we are threatened? When has the US been directly threatened since 9/11/2001, other than by the increasingly few and wealthier US men who are economically terrorising everyone else, with no accountability at all. Would it be just and "appropriate" for the US military to bomb them?

Instead, we call the richest white US men intrinsically and irrevocably "good" and "moral" and call poor citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan "evil" or guilty of "hiding evil".

It's so perverse, and tragic for the world's citizens, how the US government and the corporate lobbyists and finance and other economic rulers who run it, cannot see "our" own evil.

I won't grieve Osama bin Laden's death. I do not think he was someone to be regarded as heroic by anyone.

I also won't consider justice done until the US leaders are brought to trial and are found guilty for their crimes against humanity. Past and present, there are terrorists who have been leaders of the terror, who are still alive. What ought we call the US political and military leaders over the last nine years who have been unrelenting terrorists against Asia and who authorised and ordered military action and covert operations resulting in the mass murders of more than one hundred thousand Central Asian innocent, non-combatant, civilian people: women, men, children, committed terroristically since Sept. 11, 2001.

What is US military action for those civilians who are on the receiving end of it, other than terrorism, I wonder?

We are told "the world is safer" by President Obama. For innocent people in Afghanistan and Pakistan facing more military terrorism from the US? It's not likely any safer for those human beings who are, after all, citizens of the world.

I'm not especially concerned about whether or not they killed him. They'd be extremely foolish to promote having murdered him--well, they don't call it "murder", without knowing he was gone, because he could just do a video holding up tomorrow's newspaper and make the US look really ridiculous.

And yes: of course crude oil and other resources--land, proximity to various regions and countries, etc.--are the main reason why the U.S. invaded the area to begin with. I don't doubt that at all.

The U.S., it seems, will always find reasons to be at war against people of color globally, however, even when oil runs out.

I'm hearing some sensible things from people. A white het guy--U.S., not especially liberal, not progressive, not radical, and not terribly conservative, remarked that given what the B.P. oil company's leaders did to the U.S., "we got the wrong terrorist".

Osama Bin Laden the most wanted 'terrorist' was finally gunned down by the Americans and while most are rejoicing the victory, our celebs had mixed opinion about it.

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and daughter Pooja refused to celebrate the death of Osama.

Pooja stated, "I refuse to celebrate Osama's death. Next we'll all be screaming 'throw him to the lions' on a daily basis! Lust for blood is perverse."

Dad Mahesh too raised his voice against any kind of violence stating, "While you 'rightfully' celebrate the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Who will hang the other terrorist GEORGE 'BUTCHER' BUSH? Thousands of innocent Iraqi's and Afghani's were killed in the name of WAR AGAINST TERROR. Who will put him in the dock?" [source: *here*]

I am glad to hear that sensible Indians are against this brouhaha of Osama's death in Abbottabad. A major Indian channel even showed the fake "internet" picture of dead Osama and of course, blamed Pakistan for not taking enough action to find him.